Media Control

Iori Tada, OCU

Today, we live in a society where truths are concealed by politicians and the elite. Do you think your mind, thoughts, opinions, ideas, conceptions, and notions are really yours, or do you acquire those ideas because you have been influenced by someone or something? “Media Control” by Noam Chomsky, will shock readers who will finally see how they have been tricked. Any media that we have seen on the television, in newspapers, magazines, or advertisements, works for politicians’ profits and major company’s incomes. We must see and recognize this truth and find a way to protect our lives from their tricks. Every citizen should learn something about media control.

If you look at the function of the media, you can see the real world and you can begin to recognize that you have been controlled by the media unconsciously. Media only profits the politicians and the wealthy. In Chomsky’s view, major companies and conglomerates that invest, produce, or allocate goods make important decisions that benefit them, and they send people to the government and control it with the media. Of course, this means they are controlling the media too. They have overwhelming power in society, as they sit in prominent positions in society’s major institutions.

Now, I would like to give you an example of how they trick us by using media. Around 1908, because of mass production, companies wanted to sell a lot of their products. Therefore, they used media and proposed that consumption equals fullness of life and happiness. This is how our current consumer society was born. Even though we could use products longer, we have learned to use them in the short term and to live in a cycle of constant consumption. This system creates an economic gap between wealthy and underclass people.    

In the past, when we were at war, we didn’t need to control people’s minds. What politicians and wealthy people did was make people terrified with political violence. However, when they lost that power, they couldn’t control people anymore. People started to learn their rights and no one would obey them. Those in power needed another way to control the masses, but then how did they do it? They used propaganda.

The target of propaganda is the 80% of people who are not politicians and wealthy people. In other words, the targets are us! They want us not to think, or be concerned, but to just obey them. If we obey without question, we become victims of their propaganda. Major media companies decide how to frame the news and incidents and local media companies follow their orders. The corporate media serve them. They have control over choosing, deciding, shaping, controlling, and qualifying, all for profits of societies leaders.

Moreover, media corporations are major companies, and they make money from other major companies. Their market is advertising sponsorship and that means other companies, not their audience. Media’s earnings are based on advertising rates. So, they try to sell other companies’ products to earn higher advertising rates. The more we buy these products, the more major companies and media companies make money and again the economic gap between wealthy and underclass people increases.    

These are part of the forms of information that I learned from the book, "Media control,” by Chomsky. There are more truths about media control, and we should learn about them. We must see and recognize this truth and find a way to protect our life from their tricks before it is too late.